System quality, user satisfaction, and perceived net benefits of mobile broadband services

The continued decline of voice revenues is pushing mobile operators in Taiwan turn into data and content services for exploring new revenue opportunities and raising ARPU. This study aims to discuss the critical determinants of the internet user's adoption of 3.5G mobile broadband services in Taiwan. The theoretical framework employed in the study is Information System Success Model (DeLone & McLean, 2003; Chae et al.,2002), which is operationally defined with mobile web-services measurement scales. The study attempts to identify how the system quality of 3.5G mobile broadband services affects the customer satisfaction and their perceived net benefit. With the affordable mobile broadband connectivity, 3.5 G access or HSDPA in Taiwan has played a major role in the burgeoning mobile Internet market. HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) could be viewed as an advanced version of WCDMA wireless network. HSDPA ideally provides mobile data services up to 14.4 Mbps for the downlinks and up to 5.8 Mbps for the uplinks. According to TWNIC, the number of cell phone subscribers in Taiwan has grown up to 23 million by March 2009 with a 100% penetration rate Yet, among cell phone subscribers there were only 1.6 million users adopting mobile broadband services. --Mobile Broadband Services,IS Success Model,Customer Satisfaction,Net Benefits

Signs of Digital Distress: The Mountain West

This Fact Sheet examines the broadband services available and their subscription rates across major metro areas in the Mountain West, using the data and analysis found in “Signs of Digital Distress,” a report by the Brookings Institution

Asymmetric-valued Spectrum Auction and Competition in Wireless Broadband Services

We study bidding and pricing competition between two spiteful mobile network operators (MNOs) with considering their existing spectrum holdings. Given asymmetric-valued spectrum blocks are auctioned off to them via a first-price sealed-bid auction, we investigate the interactions between two spiteful MNOs and users as a three-stage dynamic game and characterize the dynamic game's equilibria. We show an asymmetric pricing structure and different market share between two spiteful MNOs. Perhaps counter-intuitively, our results show that the MNO who acquires the less-valued spectrum block always lowers his service price despite providing double-speed LTE service to users. We also show that the MNO who acquires the high-valued spectrum block, despite charing a higher price, still achieves more market share than the other MNO. We further show that the competition between two MNOs leads to some loss of their revenues. By investigating a cross-over point at which the MNOs' profits are switched, it serves as the benchmark of practical auction designs

Evidence of a Modest Price Decline in U.S. Broadband Services

In this paper, we construct a price index for broadband services in the United States between 2004 and 2009. We analyze over 1500 service contracts offered by DSL and cable providers in the United States. We employ a mix of matched-model methods and hedonic price index estimations to adjust for qualitative improvements. In general, we find some evidence of a quality-adjusted price decline, but the evidence points towards a modest decline at most. Our estimates of the price decline range from 3% to 10% in quality-adjusted terms for the five-year period, which is faster than the BLS estimates for the last three years. These modest price declines look nothing like other parts of electronics, such as computers or integrated circuits, which raises many questions. The results also inform a range of policy discussions about US broadband services.

International Broadband Deployment: The Impact of Unbundling

This paper shows that unbundling an incumbent's infrastructure only results in a substantial improvement in broadband deployment for middle-income countries, but not for their high income counterparts. Our statistical analysis of approximately 100 countries showed that GDP per capita, population, competition and unbundling are all factors that can lead a carrier to provide broadband services in a country. The logit models show that unbundling has a significant positive impact on the availability of broadband services. The OLS analysis indicates that GDP per capita, population size, price, competition, the percentage of dial-up Internet users, and hosts all have positive effects on the number of subscribers. One implication of these results is that if a policy is to be implemented to promote broadband, it should either foster competition through unbundling and/or reduced prices. Efforts to develop local content can also improve broadband adoption.broadband; unbundling; competition

Delivery of broadband services to SubSaharan Africa via Nigerian communications satellite

Africa is the least wired continent in the world in terms of robust telecommunications infrastructure and systems to cater for its more than one billion people. African nations are mostly still in the early stages of Information Communications Technology (ICT) development as verified by the relatively low ICT Development Index (IDI) values of all countries in the African region. In developing nations, mobile broadband subscriptions and penetration between 2000-2009 was increasingly more popular than fixed broadband subscriptions. To achieve the goal of universal access, with rapid implementation of ICT infrastructure to complement the sparsely distributed terrestrial networks in the hinterlands and leveraging the adequate submarine cables along the African coastline, African nations and their stakeholders are promoting and implementing Communication Satellite systems, particularly in Nigeria, to help bridge the digital hiatus. This paper examines the effectiveness of communication satellites in delivering broadband-based services

Universal Broadband: Targeting Investments to Deliver Broadband Services to All Americans

Suggests ways to implement Knight's 2009 recommendation for universal broadband access, including repurposing and distributing existing funds via a transparent, market-based approach and supporting adoption by low-income and other non-adopter communities

Broadband: a solution to rural e-learning?

Rural and remote learners are disadvantaged even with online provision due to poor connections. Broadband offers a potential solution. This paper looks at the initial results of a project to install broadband services in the Western Isles of Scotland. It focuses on the educational potential of broadband and the design implications for online courses. It also considers more informal kinds of learning that broadband facilitates in rural areas

A Study on determinants of Customer Satisfaction Towards Broadband Services in Songkhla Province

The researcher studies the determinants or the key factors that can affect the level of customer satisfaction of the Broadband Services in Songkhla Province in Thailand. It is crucial that Internet is a part of life for the business people in today. It can be mentioned that factors influencing between internet service of all Broadband Services providers in Songkhla Province in Thailand, quality, speed of internet and price are influential for the decision making process of the customers to select the Broadband Services providers in Songkhla Province in Thailand. The questionnaires for the quantitative research conduct were developed from many previous researches. The data was collected from 100 randomly respondents which focused business group. In addition to this, the Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient Analysis, Chi-square (2) and ANOVA (F-Test) were used to test the hypotheses of this study. In further, the results of this study show that the price and quality of Broadband Services providers are significant relevant to the customers’ satisfaction in the part of finding and analysis accordingly. Whereas, the stability, education, and monthly income have no relevant to the customers’ satisfaction in Songkhla Province in Thailand

Improving the system capacity of broadband services using multiple high-altitude platforms

A method of significantly improving the capacity of high-altitude platform (HAP) communications networks operating in the millimeter-wave bands is presented. It is shown how constellations of HAPs can share a common frequency allocation by exploiting the directionality of the user antenna. The system capacity of such constellations is critically affected by the minimum angular separation of the HAPs and the sidelobe level of the user antenna. For typical antenna beamwidths of approximately 5/spl deg/ an inter-HAP spacing of 4 km is sufficient to deliver optimum performance. The aggregate bandwidth efficiency is evaluated, both theoretically using the Shannon equation, and using practical modulation and coding schemes, for multiple HAP configurations delivering either single or multiple cells. For the user antenna beamwidths used, it is shown that capacity increases are commensurate with the increase in the number of platforms, up to 10 HAPs. For increases beyond this the choice of constellation strategy becomes increasingly important